Inherited Wealth

Tamart is a new London-based furniture brand that comes with a distinct narrative. The company is founded by architect Amos Goldreich but its products, which will be launched at Milan Design Week 2024, are based around designs created by his parents, Tamar de Shalit and Arthur Goldreich, who died in 2009 and 2011 respectively.

The pair enjoyed extraordinary careers: in 1961, de Shalit designed the interiors for the court of the high-profile trial of former Nazi official, Adolf Eichmann, in Jerusalem, for instance; while Goldreich was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa, as well as a leading Israeli design academic in later life.

Amos Goldreich stumbled across his parents’ huge archive of more than 10,000 plans, photographs, documents and prototypes by chance in his father’s studio in Israel after he died. “I really loved my father’s studio when I was growing up and used to hang out there a lot,” he says. “When I went back I found this huge tin container and in it were all these amazing drawings rolled up. I’d never seen them before.”

Subsequently, the trove was digitally scanned by Harvard University, a book produced, and the idea of putting some of the pieces into production started to germinate. “I’ve been fantasising about it for a long time,” Goldreich confesses. “And for a long time it just remained a fantasy, an idea of maybe doing something in the future. I did have a dream about it during the pandemic where I saw myself on a podium in Milan but I’ve never been to Milan Design Week before so that was kind of weird.”

The 10 new pieces – including the Clore lounge chair, ottoman and coffee table, as well as the three-legged Central stool and the Highgate chair – can broadly be described as mid-century modern. Arguably, it’s the Red Rock collection that stands out: originally designed for Eilat’s Red Rock Hotel and Club resort during its jet-set 1960s heyday, it has a bulbous aesthetic that’s almost child-like. Goldreich had an original piece in his bedroom when he was growing and says “it’s got a playfulness to it. But then I think every piece has a wonderful story behind it.”

Out of necessity, the furniture has been tweaked for the 21st-century market. As Goldreich explains: “It’s mostly to do with manufacturing processes and making the pieces more sustainable. All the upholstery is completely natural – there’s no foam so that was an implication on its shaping… but we are staying as true to the original designs as we can.” Tamart has also collaborated with textile company, Bute Fabrics, to create Contrast – a bespoke black and white woven fabric based on an original fashion textile designed by de Shalit.

“I feel like this is the final piece in this long journey,” he concludes. “It started with discovering the archive and then there was a book that came out afterwards. This is now the final stop, but there’s a new journey that will evolve with it.”

Tamart: Powered by Love will run at Design Variations 2024 | Mosca Partners in Milan from 15-21 April 2024